1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector with a male terminal protection plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0154505 discloses a connector with a male terminal protection plate. The male terminal protection plate has a surrounding wall accommodated in a receptacle of a male housing and tabs of male terminal fittings are positioned by the male terminal protection plate. A lever is mounted on the male housing and is formed with cam grooves. Cam pins project from the surrounding wall of the male terminal protection plate and can be united with cam followers of the mating female housing. The cam pins and the cam followers can be received in the cam grooves of the lever. The lever then is rotated to pull the female housing and the male terminal protection plate into the receptacle for connecting the male and female housings.
A connector with a male terminal protection plate generally provides a clearance between the inner peripheral surface of the receptacle and the outer peripheral surface of the surrounding wall of the male terminal protection plate to improve operability upon mounting the male terminal protection plate into the receptacle. Thus, the male terminal protection plate can incline like a seesaw in the receptacle with the cam pins as supporting points.
The male terminal protection plate might incline together with the female housing upon separating the female housing from the male housing, and the female housing might interfere with the receptacle to hinder the separating operation due to this inclination.
The invention was developed in view of the above situation, and an object thereof is to prevent inclination of a male terminal protection plate in a receptacle, and hence to improve the overall operability of a connector.